Five of Our Favorite Photoshop Alternatives

While we do use Photoshop daily, that doesn't mean that there aren't other image editing tools available worth considering. Depending on what you are doing with images, there are different types of software available that might better fit your needs and budget. Here are a selection of digital photo tools for creating, editing, and tweaking images...

Before you buy any of these apps, you should give them a go by using the trial versions. It's an easy way of seeing if the app is right for what you need to get done. This way, you'll ensure getting the ones suited best for you.

1. Pixelmator This app costs $30 in the Mac App Store and it's filled with cool features that will let you modify your images. It's easy to use and pretty powerful, so it will allow you to get a lot done.

2. SketchBook Pro As with many apps, you can try this one out, but it will cost you $50 at the App Store. It's mainly a way to create images, like what you'd use Adobe Illustrator for. There is a free version of this software in the Mac App Store and it's called Sketchbook Express.

3. Aperture Since we've experienced issues with iPhoto, we prefer using Aperture. It costs $80 at the App Store and it's filled with features for people who want to do some post-processing with their photos, but don't want to use Photoshop. The App Store version is significantly cheaper as the one that you can buy in Apple stores, $80 vs $200.

4. GIMP For Mac This is an open-source freeware that will allow you to edit your images. There are many ways of using it, from a simple paint program to an expert quality photo retouching program. Since it's free, it's hard find reasons why you shouldn't give it a try.

5. Adobe Lightroom This is available for Windows and OS X and it's a strong tool to do image post-processing with. There are a lot of features that will allow you to play with your images easily, as well as a lot of set options, which means that you can use them on your photos without too steep a learning curve.